I think he'd make a very good bank-clerk, but at present he wants to go to sea.

There isn't the remotest chance of his being able to go to sea.

The question is whether he can get a nomination to a bank.

It will be quite a step in the social scale if we can manage it for Jim." She looked at Drummond with her frank, direct gaze, and he blushed awkwardly.
"I don't know anything at all about your people, or anything of that sort, Miss Gray, but if I could help----" "I don't think you could help." Mary's big mysterious eyes under their dark lashes, under their beautiful brows, looked at him reflectively.
"You see, you don't know anything about us.

I am the eldest of a large family.